AN equaliser two minutes from time from Bjarni Vidarsson was enough to earn Everton Reserves a draw against Manchester City in the Barclays Premiership Reserve North at Haig Avenue.

Everton had keeper Richard Wright as the only player with first team experience in their line-up and started brightly against a City side which included Ben Thatcher and Bradley Wright-Phillips.

John Paul Kissock nearly opened the scoring after just a minute but could only find keeper Geert De Vlieger when he headed Patrick O'Boyle's cross goalwards.

Slowly though City began to take control of the game and it was no surprise when they took the lead just on the half hour.

Ishmael Miller sent in a dangerous low cross and youngster Daniel Sturridge poked home the ball from close range.

A quiet start to the second half changed 11 minutes in, as Everton's failure to deal with Kelvin Etuhu's hopeful ball bounced through to Bradley Wright-Phillips, who drove the ball home left-footed from 12-yards out.

Andy Holden's team however refused to believe they were beaten and on 81 minutes Victor Anichebe raced onto a through ball from Vidarsson and buried his shot past De Vlieger and into the net to halve the deficit.

City were now under pressure after looking comfortable most of the evening, Everton continued to press and with just a couple of minutes on the clock Bjarni Vidarsson capitalised on some poor defending in the City box to force the ball home and level the scores.

Wright showed his class in the dying seconds saving from Miller and despite a late effort from Wright-Phillips Everton held firm to get a point from what looked like a lost cause.